Pen pals: Scott Parker signs autographs for fans outside England's Stary Hotel in Krakow

Asked about penalties, he said: ‘We have practised already. We have used the time after training sessions to practise regularly.

‘We’ll obviously take it even more seriously now. But you well know, you can practise penalty shootouts until the cows come home; it’s really your composure, your confidence, your ability to really block everything out and forget the occasion that means you score or you don’t score.

‘Having said that, you practise them and you hope that one day it will make a big difference. But in my experience it comes down to the strength of mind of the individual.
And sometimes we’ve seen the best players miss and the  players you think are not penalty takers smash them in.’

Hodgson claims to have been fairly successful in such situations in the past. ‘I’ve done it with other clubs in other countries before,’ he said. ‘I’ve done it with Italians as well, so I’m quite good at it.’

But he recognises the sheer sense of dread that engulfs a nation when a knock-out match moves towards the end of extra time.

‘It’s because we’ve lost important matches on penalties so it’s going to be that way,’ he said. ‘When you are  working with the England team the past is always going to weigh heavily because everything we do today is being  compared with something that  happened in the past.

« Previous12345Next »